Delhi NCR is among India's fastest-growing microeconomies, accounted for by several reasons. The region is a high-paying industrial and employment hub with evolved social infrastructure.
However, after prices in Delhi peaked over the last decade, shifting base to neighbouring cities like Gurgaon and Noida became a trend for organisations and the working class alike.
Thanks to two key factors, Gurgaon was the first city to benefit from this trend.
First, the emergence of Maruti Suzuki and its ancillary units creating thousands of blue-collar and white-collar jobs to set the ball rolling in the 1980s.
Second, the transformation of Palam Airport into the Indira Gandhi International Airport. That made Gurgaon an attractive base for multinational companies that could establish easy links with their home countries.
Consequently, real estate prices in Gurugram skyrocketed, with commercial and residential price indexes matching up with that in Delhi.
And now, Noida is primed to steamroll and surpass Gurgaon.
Yes! A growth spurt with skyrocketing real estate and regional development has engulfed Noida.
That begs a few questions like:
What makes Noida the best investment opportunity in 2023?
Why investing in Noida is a smart move?
Let us decode these through the top five reasons Noida is NCR's next (and even bigger) Gurugram.
1. Jewar Airport (Noida International Airport)
This is the big one!
Noida International Airport, a mega project of epic proportions, is set to transform travel within and outside India. The airport-India's largest and fourth-largest worldwide-- also doubles as one of India's biggest logistics hubs with a dedicated freight corridor.
It is a tremendous boost to the region's export potential by linking two major industrial corridors – the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor and the Dedicated Freight Corridor - pushing regional trade and commerce to a new level.
The airport will host 225 million passengers annually when fully completed; the first phase alone will serve 12 million passengers annually.
It will create over a lakh jobs and attract ₹60,0000 crore of investments. Pundits are already hailing it as a 'history in the making' –referencing the IGI airport and Gurgaon growth story.
Single-handedly, it shall be a real-estate blockbuster for the Noida region.
2. The Yamuna Expressway
The 165-km, six-lane Expressway connecting Delhi to Agra through Greater Noida is now the region's latest development hotbed.
The Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA) is inundated with national and international players lined up to get a slice of this pie.
Some of the big-ticket investors include:
Patanjali Food Processing Park: Patanjali Ayurveda's much acclaimed Food Processing Park on Yamuna Expressway has attracted national interest. The largest project of its kind in Uttar Pradesh, the park is a ₹ 1,400 investment with the potential to create 20,000 jobs by itself.
Surya Global: The owner of the famous Indian biscuit brand Priyagold started the construction of its manufacturing facility in August 2021. It has invested Rs 953.39 crore in an area of 38.10 acres. The facility shall produce 1.5 lakh tones of biscuits annually and create 3,000 direct and indirect jobs.
Bikanervala: The restaurant chain has set up shop in Sector 32, roughly 10 km from the airport. It has invested Rs 160.27 crore for a 25-acre plot of land and is aligned to produce 30,000 tonnes of products per year while creating 2,000 direct and indirect jobs.
Indian Partnership Forum (IPF): The UK-based forum signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) worth Rs 4,000 crore with YEIDA during the UP Global Investors' Summit held last month. The agreement aims to facilitate collaboration between Indian and British businesses in education, healthcare, tourism, and renewable energy.
Film City: The Film City project, a public-private partnership, is being developed on 1,000 acres of land in Sector 21 along the Yamuna Expressway, close to the Jewar airport site. The project shall be a world-class film production and entertainment hub, generating thousands of direct and indirect employment opportunities.
A domino effect out of these is enveloping the Noida-Greater Noida region. For example, the Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority has closed big-ticket projects led by the Lulu Group International.
The Middle East-based retail giant has announced its export-oriented food and agriculture-produce processing park on 20 acres of land in Greater Noida. The facility is expected to generate 700 jobs and indirectly employ 1,500 people. The Group also plans to invest Rs 2,500 crore in Uttar Pradesh, including three malls in Prayagraj, Varanasi, and Sector-108, Greater Noida.
3. Thriving Job Market
Infrastructure and technology giants eyeing the Noida region are in top gear.
And for good reason!
YEIDA, the Uttar Pradesh government, and other regional authorities are moving full steam towards IT/ITES infrastructure development. An e-auction scheme kicked off by YEIDA shall generate ₹ 220 crores in revenues from the sale of designated data centre plots on Sector 28 along the Expressway. The allocated region spans over 200 acres.
AdaniConneX, the data centre business of the Adani Group, has pumped in $213 million for data centre development in Noida and Chennai, with a 50-megawatt development pledged for Noida.
Besides, established IT players like Samsung, Microsoft, HCL, TCS, Infosys, Oracle, and others already account for thousands of jobs. A new data centre wave will push that further -- in addition to jobs stemming from Jewar Airport and Yamuna Expressway developments.
4. Hotspot Accessibility
Noida is revamping faster than imagined! In a short time, it has developed into one of the most advanced networks of expressways and highways that include the Noida-Greater Noida Expressway, Yamuna Expressway, Faridabad-Noida-Ghaziabad (FNG) Expressway, Delhi-Meerut Expressway, and Eastern Peripheral Expressway.
And that is not all!
Other in-city advancements at full tilt shall define commuting of a whole new kind.
An extended Aqua Line metro with eight new stations shall link Greater Noida to Delhi with a one-stop changeover at Botanical Garden with an interchange for Blue and Magenta Lines. The line is set to extend further all the way to Bodaki, linking it to Sector 51. Plans for the same are ready.
A pod taxi service will connect the airport with Noida's Film City. Also known as Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) is a driverless electric vehicle traversing a dedicated track without interfering with road traffic. Only three locations worldwide run PRT - London, Dubai, and Singapore.
A BRT corridor will connect the airport, Pari Chowk, and Yamuna Expressway industries. It will have fast lanes for buses and other vehicles with linked-up metro rail.
5. ROI
Back in the day, Gurugram and Noida were perceived as two different investment worlds. While booming infrastructure, employment opportunities, and the IGI Airport meant residential and commercial properties with exceptional returns in Gurugram, Noida was then a work in progress.
That is a thing of the past.
Today, Noida is NCR's new Gurugram --with its own transportation infrastructure, employment generation, expanding workforce, and India's largest international airport.
Comments